Locustream

Locus Sonus Stream Project offers a worldwide network of "open mikes" that permanently stream local soundscapes to a dedicated server. The resulting live audio is used in a large variety of artistic projects. The microphones are installed and maintained by volunteer participants.

Locus Sonus Stream Project is a network of open microphones that stream the captured audio environment live from locations spread around the globe to our server. We provide the technology and support for this project and the microphones are maintained by a network of sound artists and musicians (or simply people who are interested in the project) that we call “streamers”. Over the last ten years this project has developed from a single remote microphone, to become a worldwide pooled resource used by numerous artists and enjoyed by countless listeners. We have developed different systems to allow streamers to set up a microphone: a dedicated system for the economical Raspberry Pi mini computer; apps for iOS and Android; Pd patches and standalone applications for PCs. All these systems are configured to connect directly to our streaming server. The streams can be accessed through different interfaces that are permanently available online, the most popular one being Locus Sonus Sound Map. The sound map visualizes the live microphones that are open worldwide. The user can navigate to the desired sound source and listen to the live sound via their browser. Features include: written descriptions and pictures of the site where the sound is captured, the possibility to track mobile microphones in real-time via GPS and an automatic mode which randomly switches between microphones at a given interval.

Using and/or participating in the stream project implies questioning ‘traditional’ listening and compositional practices where audio content is pre-determined. It raises questions regarding ‘real-time’ and ‘real-space’ as well as continuity and mobility that are reflected overall in the corpus of artistic creations.